#i'm not tagging the xeno version and that's final

[csamuels]

Apollo Samuels AU? 👀 I literally sniffed it out in your tags like a goddamn animal

(≧∇≦)ﾉ aahhhhh I'm so sorry you sent this ask two years ago and I started it, put it in my drafts, and COMPLETELY forgor about it 😭 coupled with me loosing interest in alien isolation for a bit. HOWEVER a new ripuels fic (lifeline by jsystemexe my beloved) and my ocs made me return (and consider writing a fic based on one of these aus) so here we are! I'm on mobile and half asleep rn so I apologize for any writing/formatting issues.

There are so many variations iirc but the main two are one where Sevastopol still remains, albeit now much closer to the gas giant, and one where he escapes but Apollo is sorta piggybacking in his head which causes many problems for both of them.

both of these are set some time after the main game idk how far ahead but there is a bit of a time gap

Sevastopol Remains/Puppet AU:

What remains of Sevastopol is now in a low orbit around KG348. It’s no longer falling but is pretty close once the last gravity mooring finally gives. Despite no longer being in immediate danger, any outside access or communication is near impossible due to the station’s newfound location.

So with Sevastopol’s now decrepit remains in a steady new orbit slightly within KG348′s upper atmosphere (I’m ignoring the concept of planetary gravity for the sake of this concept rn I’ll think of something better later lskdhksdhs), Apollo now needs to do a LOT damage control. Problem is most systems are down, making is very difficult to tell the state of the station.

    Samuels is a perfect host to get a better idea of the station’s situation and is able to make up for Apollo's damaged elements. Despite his less than stellar condition and complete unwillingness. But since Samuels is in a shit condition he can’t really stop Apollo too much against using him like a puppet.

Together they try to keep the station from falling into the planet. However there is a lot of clash between the two. There are still Xenomorphs on the station and still acting under the company's orders, Apollo intends to keep these creatures and restore contact with Weyland-Yutani. Samuels on the other hand wants nothing to do with the company anymore, and is focused on getting the few survivors off the station alive.

This AU mostly focuses on the conflict between Samuels and Apollo. Though at some point Samuels and the survivors do get a message out, which just so happens to get shown to Amanda. Who then immediately decides to return to Sevastopol.

There are two alt version of this AU where Apollo is destroyed and to ensure the safety of the very few survivors, Samuels takes its place. Most I can remember of this is that Amanda returns. Samuels has to stay hooked up to the station to open a path for them and to have surveillance on the aliens. He is the only thing keeping the station from falling again.

However, after disconnecting the ship from the station, Amanda can't just leave him behind even though he begs her to. She ends up getting back onto the station and makes her way to the chamber that once held Apollo. He tries to stop and black her but she finds away to him, eventually convincing him to go with her. They rush to the exit and make it out the airlock and to the ship safely as Sevastopol and the xenos finally fall to their destruction.

The other alt version is moreso an "evil au" kinda where Apollo has more control over Samuels and is using him to do Apollo's dirty work.

-

Host AU:

Samuels was still barely alive as Sevastopol was beginning its fall. Apollo was heavily damaged and did not see destruction as an optimal outcome. Seeing that Samuels was still somewhat functioning, it saw it fit to transfer itself into him while he was still partially connected to the reformat chamber (I know he wasn't hooked up to anything in there but we are slightly changing canon to make this work).

This leads to quite a rude and forced awakening to make Samuels evac the both of them off of the now falling station. Using a short distance ambulance shuttle they just barely make it off. Now this AU also has two variants. One where they are found by Weyland-Yutani, and the other where they are found by a scavenger.

I don't have much for the au where they are required by the company. This one also has two sub aus. Either they are used by the company as the station AI for a trap/research station for the Xenomorphs. Or they are kept away in containment or something I'm still figuring it out.

The other version of this AU has them being found by a scavenger or after drifting for some time, crashing on a nearby ice planet. They have to work together again to survive and keep their synthetic/AI identity a secret. This has some elements from the Sevastopol remains AU as Apollo wants to return to its new owners (the company) while Samuels wants to escape (and maybe try and find out if Amanda lived and escaped).

They end up finding refuge in an underground colony on the planet and do odd jobs to earn money and gain the trust of those around them. They get a support dog in this AU :). The scavenger who found them (if it's that case/version) would probably be the only one who knows the truth and would aid in keeping their secret. It is very difficult as Apollo is a station AI, and requires a lot of power and storage. Samuels often finds himself overwhelmed by information and warnings coupled with him overheating. Other colony residents find it odd how he can tolerate the cold in comparison to the rest of them. On the flip side, Apollo (while not having the same emotional range) finds it suboptimal to not have its previous access to a wide array of data and controls.

Hopefully this explains things somewhat lol. I'll either add onto it later or make some more posts going into detail. I just really like the idea of these two. There are plenty of different ways these AUs could be done from the way I wrote it and if anyone wants to add on or write something based on these 👀👀 I would love to see it.

[duhragonball]

Super Dragon Ball Heroes 1-6

We’ve reached the final (planned) stop on the 2023 Dragon Ball Apocrypha Liveblog, and it’s the most apocryphal series of all, the Super Dragon Ball Heroes web anime!

Here’s the deal.  In 2010, Bandai Namco published a trading card arcade game called Dragon Ball Heroes.  Then in 2016 they updated it to improve the user experience, and renamed it Super Dragon Ball Heroes.   A manga adaptation of the game began in 2017, and then in 2018 Toei began this “original net animation” to promote the game. 

My engagement with the DBH franchise has been superficial at best.  Mostly, I just rock out to the theme songs when I find them on YouTube.  I’ve never played the games because I have no idea where and how to play them, and the gameplay doesn’t look all that compelling to me.  I think some of this stuff is only available in Japan?  I’ve never bothered to find out, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

And yet, I’m somewhat familiar with the story mode from the games, as they involve the Time Patrol, which I wanted to research for the fanfic I’m writing, part of which serves as a prose adaptation of Xenoverse 1.  I even wrote a guest appearance with several characters from DBH, and I might use them again down the line.  Also, the manga contains some backstory involving Towa and Demigra, who also appear in Xenoverse 1, and feature heavily in my fic.  So I’ve read some of the manga, and I watched some of the web anime, but mostly for the purpose of scraping them for useful lore. 

From what I can tell, the entire thing is a mess from a story perspective.  The game has been around for 13 years, so it’s clearly a success, but the manga feels completely removed from the story the game tries to tell, and the web anime seems to go off in a completely different direction from that.  At its core, Dragon Ball Heroes is mainly about answering the question “Wouldn’t it be cool if you teamed up with Super Saiyan 3 Vegito to fight Dark Demon Baby Majin Hatchiyack?”  The answer is obviously “hell yeah”, so I don’t understand why we need a manga and anime version to tell stories that don’t really touch on what makes the game fun. 

Mostly, I wanted to run through this web anime for the sake of completion.  The whole thing is up on YouTube, ripe for the viewing, but I keep losing track of which episodes I’ve already seen, and I can never remember what the hell happened.  So this is where we put the “log” in “liveblog”.

We’re starting today with the first six episodes, which make up the Prison Planet arc of the show.  That may sound like a lot of ground to cover, but these episodes are short, so we’re only talking about 40-45 minutes of footage.

The story begins with Goku and Vegeta training with Whis on Beerus’ planet.  Also, the Supreme Kai is here serving tea, and then Future Mai runs over, so she’s here too, apparently.  According to Shin, they came to Beerus’ planet so Trunks could train, but this scene make it look like Mai came here alone, which I’m pretty sure is impossible.  Maybe Whis or Shin brought her, except she was supposed to be with Trunks, so why is everyone just now finding out he didn’t make it?

To be clear, this is the Blue-haired Trunks and Future Mai from the Zamasu arc.  When we last saw them, Whis had arranged for them to take refuge in an alternate timeline where Zamasu hadn’t killed everyone yet.  It was also made clear that they would never return from that world, but SDBH just has them dropping in like it’s Sunday brunch.  Now, you might be asking “Didn’t you just say Xeno Trunks was a character in Heroes?  Why isn’t that version of Trunks in this show?”  And to that I say: Don’t worry, he’s in this too, just not as much.

Then this shady-looking dude named Fu shows up and tells everyone that Trunks is trapped on “The Prison Planet”.  Vegeta asks how he could possibly know that, and Fu explains that he’s a friend of Trunks and he investigated his disappearance.  I like how skeptical Vegeta is of this story.  “My son doesn’t have friends, get the fuck outta here.”

So Goku, Vegeta, and Mai travel to the Prison Planet, which is just a bunch of clip art of planets from our solar system clustered together and surrounded by cartoon chains.  It looks stupid as hell, like they told the art department “We need a prison planet design, and make it as literal as possible.”

There, the gang meets a second Goku, who can turn Super Saiyan 4. This is not the same Goku from Dragon Ball GT, and official sources refer to him as “Xeno Goku”.  He’s an agent of the Time Patrol, and when he encounters the other Goku, they get into a classic superhero misunderstanding and fight.  Then Fu shows up and it quickly becomes clear that he’s the one behind all of this.   Xeno Goku is on a mission to apprehend Fu, and Fu brags that he uses the Prison Planet to trap powerful warriors for his experiments.  Fu tricked Trunks into coming here, then used him as bait to lure Goku and Vegeta.  Xeno Goku pretended to get caught in order to infiltrate this place, but that suits Fu’s purposes, since he’s trapped here now. 

He tells them to find Trunks themselves, and says something about how they’ll have to gather the Dragon Balls on the Prison Planet.  Xeno Goku has one, but the other six are in the hands of the other prisoners.  This sounds like a pretty decent gauntlet for the good guys to go through, but this whole idea gets abandoned by Episode 2.

Meanwhile, Trunks wakes up in a cell with a prison uniform and some sort of tracking bracelet on his arm.   Then the wall opens up and he runs out into a city.  Then Cooler attacks him, seeking the Dragon Balls.  This seems like a pretty cool premise, more authentic to the “Prison Planet” title, but this is all dropped immediately.

From his lab, Fu watches everyone and seems extremely pleased with what’s going on, although he never explains why, or what his plan is.  Get used to this, because this is pretty much all he ever does.

Meanwhile, he’s got this other guy locked away.  His name is Cumber, the Masked Evil Saiyan, and he has a Dragon Ball too.  At the end of episode 1, Fu says it’s not quite time for him to get involved yet.  In Episode 2, Cumber breaks free and heads straight for the good guys to attack them.

Goku tries to punch Cumber, but Cumber has this weird power where if you touch his ki, it makes you go berserk.  That sounds pretty awesome, except it only happens to Goku here, just once, and then it never gets brought up again.  I notice I’m saying that a lot here. 

Also, berserk Goku’s skin is darker for some reason, which I like better, actually, except this is supposed to signify Cumber’s dark energy corrupting him or something, so that seems kind of problematic. 

Fortunately for Vegeta, Trunks and Cooler show up to help.  Yeah, Cooler’s on our side for this.  Apparently he and Trunks came to some sort of understanding between Episodes 1 and 2.  The prison clothes were pointless, since Mai brought along Trunks’ own clothing, so he changes out of them to join the fight. 

During his captiviy, Cooler heard from Fu about Golden Frieza, so he decides to try that for himself and succeeds immediately.  This is treated like some big game-changing moment, as if fans haven’t been photo-shopping Cooler since 2015.  Cooler than goes “I think I shall call this form.................... Golden Cooler!” like there was any possible other name he would have used.

Goku finally comes to his senses, but then Cumber breaks free of his restraints. Trunks goes in to distract him while Goku and Vegeta use Potara earrings which the Supreme Kai gave to Mai before they set off on this trip. 

So it’s Vegito Blue vs. Cumber, and things get so rough that Vegito has to do a Kai-o-ken on top of Blue.  Here’s a picture of Golden Cooler just standing there like an asshole watching. 

Vegito seems to gain the upper hand, but then Cumber reveals he knows the fake moon technique, and he turns into a giant ape.  I’m not sure why he’s this orange color, unless this is meant to be like Golden Oozaru tainted with evil ki or whatever.  The thing is, they keep calling Cumber an “Evil Saiyan”, but he hasn’t actually done anything that evil.  I mean, he choked out Trunks, but there’s plenty of regular Saiyans who would do the same thing if they could.  “Evil Saiyan” implies that he’s some kind of next-level evil, like hanging goat entrails over his altar to Moloch or something.

His first ki blast causes Vegito’s fusion to dissolve, but perhaps more importantly, Cumber’s fighting at such an intensity that it’s damaging the giant chains that seal the Prison Planet off from the rest of the universe.

Goku and Vegeta decide their only chance now is to cut off Cumber’s tail, and Trunks flies in to back them up.  Mai watches from the sidelines, and she’s got two more Potara earrings.  Wait, how many of these things did Shin give her, anyway?

At this point, Fu finally notices the cracks in the seal on the Prison Planet and goes to the battlefield to scold Cumber in person.  He takes out his sword and does some sort of technique to dispel the fake moon and reverse Cumber’s Oozaru transformation without cutting his tail. 

Fu withdraws, apparently satisfied that he’s brought the fight down to a more acceptable level.  This pretty much puts us back where we started, except Goku’s now using Super Saiyan God to fight Cumber, even though we just saw Cumber give Vegito a hard time at Super Saiyan Blue.  Cumber seems to recognize the God form somehow, but he never explains his reaction to it, and this never gets brought up again.

Despite Fu’s intervention, the chains break away completely.  You’d think this would upset Fu, and he is upset, but not because of this...

No, he’s upset because, while he was away, someone found his lab and wrecked it.  Now he can’t monitor the battle, which disrupts his experiment. 

Cumber wrecks Goku’s shit, which knocks him out for a while, but fortunately Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta show up to defend him. Seems that they were the ones who wrecked Fu’s lab, and I guess that explains where Xeno Vegeta was until this moment.  He was scouting out the lab, waiting for an opening. 

I don’t know why the other Vegeta isn’t getting involved in this fight.  I think he’s okay, but he just stands with Trunks and Mai watching the battle. I mean, Golden Cooler is doing the same thing, but I think we’ve already established that Golden Cooler is just an asshole.

Xeno Vegeta suggests that they fuse, since Cumber’s one tough bastard.  He hates fusion, but he’s willing to make an exception.  So for those of you keeping score, this is the second fusion in less than six episodes.

So now it’s Super Saiyan 4 Vegito vs. Cumber, who decides to bust out Super Saiyan 3.  You can tell because his eyebrows are gone.  This seems weird, because base Cumber was giving Vegito Blue a hard time, so the only conclusion I can make here is that SSJ4 is stronger than Blue, or Cumber’s transformations don’t mean much.

Vegito 4 seems to beat Cumber, but then Fu shows up again to confront the jerks who broke his lab. 

Then Cumber rejoins the battle, and Fu observes that the seal on the Prison Planet has been broken. And he seems... happy about this?  If this was what he wanted all along, why did he cancel Cumber’s Oozaru form?  He says that “they will revive soon”, and leaves.

I like how he uses his sword (swords?) to cut an X-shaped portal for himself.  That’s a nice touch. 

Xeno Goku wants to chase after Fu, but they have to rescue the others from Cumber, who’s fired a giant ki blast at them.  Regular Vegeta complains about Regular Goku just lying there passed out, when...

Goku suddenly wakes up and goes Ultra Instinct.  While he fights Cumber alone, the rest of them teleport back to Beerus’ planet.  Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta say their farewells and head off to continue the hunt for Fu, and I guess everyone just assumes that Regular Goku can save himself when he’s ready.

Just as Goku beats Cumber, another portal opens up, and out comes... Zamasu?  And he’s got a posse.  They grab Cumber and leave.

This leaves Goku alone on the Prison Planet as it explodes.  Nice callback to the destruction of Namek, except Goku can use Instant Transmission, so why isn’t he?

Back on Beerus’ planet, the Supreme Kai of Universe 6 suddenly shows up, and he breathlessly informs Vegeta and the rest about an invasion in his home universe.  Dammit, now I have to look up his name.  Fuwa.  The Supreme Kai of U6 is named Fuwa.  Glad we settled that.

Vegeta’s like “I’m a bad enough dude to save Universe 6.  Let’s rock.”

So yeah, this is a bunch of nonsense.  There is a plotline running through all of this, but Toei presented the first six episodes like it’s a single story arc, and it’s more like the first leg of a larger story arc.  There’s hints of something more ambitious here.  Trunks’ prison uniform and the Dragon Balls suggest that they might have been planning to spend more time in this setting, but instead the whole thing explodes in less time than it takes to get a pizza delivered. 

This probably goes without saying, but there’s too many characters in this thing.  We have two Gokus and two Vegetas, and both pairs fuse to make two Vegitos.  It’s fanservice, I get it, but it’s over before we can really get into it.  Golden Cooler literally doesn’t do anything.  I mean Mai doesn’t do much either, but that’s because she doesn’t have any powers.  I don’t know which one irritates me more. 

I like the idea of Cumber, but they never fleshed him out.  Fu keeps teasing details about the guy, but we never find out where he found Cumber or how he got him here, or why he wears that mask.  At least Cumber is still alive so he can return in future episodes and hopefully give us the scoop, but I’m not optimistic that we’ll get much. 

[kaesaaurelia]

🍰

Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn't have to be your all time fave).

This is a difficult question for me because honestly most of the time when I want to read something for comfort, I usually either pull up Scrivener or my own AO3 page and read some hurt/comfort I wrote, because almost all of what I write is stuff I want to read. My other comfort reading habits are favorite middle-grade or YA novels from my youth (The Pushcart War, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, and the first few Young Wizards books) and, um, fics for pairings and fandoms I have no investment in, so one of my faves is a hockey RPF academic AU, and there's some good tropey MCU fic I've enjoyed, particularly time travel stuff. There's also a few friends-to-lovers pairings that I can just go to the fic tag and read a bunch of when I'm down. (Examples include Arthur/Merlin (BBC versions) and Aziraphale/Crowley.) But! Here are some fics from fandoms I actually know:

Buy the Stars by conceptofzero

Fallen London; Player Character/Rubbery Man. 36k words, rated E.

I love fluffy xeno romance and the gentle sort of "figuring out how to communicate while taking refuge with each other" in this particular fic is a great example of why I love fluffy xeno romance.

No Reservations: Narnia by Edonohana

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations/The Chronicles of Narnia crossover. 6.2k words, rated T.

A classic; everyone's read it, even my mom. But it's good, and I find reading about elaborate fantasy food comforting. (One of my other go-to comfort activities is looking through fannish recipes or daydreaming about cooking things based on a piece of media I'm into, so this works for that.)

Senses by Miss_Prince

Analogue: A Hate Story; *Hyun-ae/*Mute. 1.9k words, rated G.

This is a fic about a character who's been been through some shit in canon getting good things, finally.

service returns an untagged EXISTS response by tweedymcgee

Doctor Who/Homestuck crossover; Karkat and the Tenth Doctor. 1k words, rated T.

Not comfort fic per se, but I find it hilarious and it always cheers me up to remember it exists.

social links by simplycarryon

Undertale; Sans & Alphys friendship fic. 2.5k words, rated G.

Their friendship is only hinted at in canon but I'm fully on board with the fanon that they're bad decision buddies and I love them.

Turn by Saras_Girl

Harry Potter; Harry/Draco. 306k words, rated E.

Honestly I haven't read any of Saras_Girl's longfics that wasn't a good comfort read, but this one is one of my favorites. Unfortunately her summaries and titles are often super vague and I was like "shit, which one is the one where Harry falls into an AU and has to rethink his whole entire life?" and I guessed incorrectly a couple times before finding it. Anyway, this one is great and has themes of Rethinking Your Whole Entire Life As An Adult Who's Supposed To Have Everything Figured Out, but frankly so do a lot of her fics, which I appreciate as an adult who has absolutely never had anything figured out except like, how to write funny dialogue.